


Defiance

by GloriaMundi



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode: s05e19 Vegas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-11
Updated: 2009-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 06:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloriaMundi/pseuds/GloriaMundi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Night comes fast and cold in the desert. The stars are swirling above him. He's thirsty. Really fucking thirsty. The wreckage has burnt itself to a smoulder. The other wreckage. John's not burning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defiance

Night comes fast and cold in the desert. The stars are swirling above him. He's thirsty. Really fucking thirsty. The wreckage has burnt itself to a smoulder. The other wreckage. John's not burning. He's —

Okay. Space aliens. He's never been a fan of science fiction, but what the hell? He just took out a space alien. He just — he just saved the world.

What else has he been wrong about? How much of that sci-fi stuff is real? Aliens, check: lots of 'em, McKay'd said. Space flight. Other planets, other _galaxies_. Killer robots? The Force? Mind control? What about time-travel? What if he could go back and fix —

The stars are kind of blurry now. Maybe they aren't all stars. Maybe ... that bright one there, maybe that's a spaceship, a _US_ spaceship, coming for to carry him home.

There's no home any more. Not in this reality, anyhow. Fuck, he's cold. He's been cold since that thing in the casino, that _Wraith_, got into his head and made him fold with a winning hand. Way to go, John. Way to go.

McKay got into his head a different way. John's not sure how he feels about the way McKay played him. Not sure what he thinks about the look in McKay's eyes when he talked about the other John Sheppard, the _hero_. And what was with the Wraith in the cell, that spiel about showing John his destiny?

_Defiance tastes like life itself._

Ha. Turns out it — he — was right about the dry desert. No place to go. No river, no water. Christ, John wants to see the sea again. Wants clear blue skies, the sound of waves. Wants it like he wants flight.

There are worse ways to go than out here in the cold clean night, falling into the stars. The pain — shoulder, ribs, gut — is fading beneath cold and thirst and that dizzying hypnotic sky. But he's not ready to go just yet, just when he's found out what the hell is going on. He'll be damned if he goes like this.

His mouth's too dry to taste anything.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [First-person defiance [exercise]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4563306) by [GloriaMundi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloriaMundi/pseuds/GloriaMundi)




End file.
